An Atlanta, Ga.-based company has been awarded the contract to build the final link between Corridor X and Interstate 65, the Alabama Department of Transportation announced Wednesday.

Archer Western Contractors on May 21 submitted the low bid of $168.6 million.

The project involves completing the roughly 1 1/2-mile section between where Corridor X currently ends at Coalburg Road and I-65, and connecting the two interstates with 19 bridges and overpasses.

The work is expected to begin in July and must be complete by Oct. 15, 2014, ALDOT spokesman Tony Harris said.

The awarding of the contract brings Work on Alabama's roughly 96-mile portion of the Birmingham-to-Memphis interstate closer to completion. The work started more than 30 years ago.

"This project is the largest project not only of this administration, but in the state's history, and we look forward to working with Archer Western Contractors to connect Corridor X to I-65," transportation director Joe McInnes said in a prepared statement.

The Corridor X project is the single largest ever let to contract by ALDOT, Harris said.

ALDOT reviewed the three bids -- the lowest of which was Archer Western's -- and the Federal Highway Administration on Wednesday informed McInnes they concurred with ALDOT's decision to award the project to Archer Western.

Other bids were Birmingham-based Brasfield and Gorrie's bid of $171.28 million and a three-way joint venture bid of $183.81 million submitted by R.R. Dawson Bridge Co. of Bessemer, Dement Construction of Jackson, Tenn., and Wright Brothers Construction of Charleston, Tenn.